More Accidental Marriage
by pcworth
Summary: This is an addendum of my story Accidental Marriage.
1. Chapter 1

"Bath time," Emma said, as she bent down to pick up her son Bodie.

"No," he said, squirming out of her grasp.

"But you love bath time," she said.

"No," he said returning to the toys he was playing with.

"Come on," she said. "You have bath toys you can play with. Let's go upstairs."

"No."

Emma sighed. She didn't know what this phase was he was going through, but it was already on her nerves. Lately, it seemed like everything was no with him – at least toward her it was.

It was already later than when she would normally have given him a bath. Regina had city council tonight and it was a long one as they were going over some department budget numbers and so Emma was alone with Bodie and Henry.

Bending down again, Emma picked up Bodie, holding him despite his attempts to get out of it.

"Bath time," she said firmly as she carried him upstairs. He didn't stop squirming the entire time and now had started the crying and screaming.

Henry came out of his room just as she made it to the stairs.

"What's wrong?"

"Someone doesn't want bath time tonight," she said.

Bodie reached out for Henry as if expecting his older brother to help him out of this jam.

"Do you want me to give him his bath?" Henry asked.

"No, I got this," Emma said heading toward the bathroom. "And you better not have been offering as a way to procrastinate from doing your homework."

Henry disappeared into his room without answering.

Once inside the bathroom, Emma put Bodie down and he immediately made a break for the door. Expecting the move, she got a hold of him quickly and shut the door, which started another crying fit.

"Bodie, you have to take a bath," Emma said, putting him down again so she could get his clothes off and get him in the tub. She had already run the bath water before getting him. He was still crying when she finally removed his clothes and placed him in the tub.

He hit the water with his hands a couple of times and continued to cry.

"Bodie, baby, what's wrong?" Emma asked, as she knelt beside the tub. "Why are you crying?"

"I want mom," he said, between sobs.

Mom was Regina, where she was Mommy. They figured both were easy identifiers for him – at least until he grew up. Henry called them both mom, although on occasion he liked to call Emma mommy in front of Bodie and he always did so an exaggerated way that made Bodie laugh.

"Mom is at work right now," Emma said. "But she will be home soon."

This answer didn't appease him. She didn't understand why he was being this way toward her but it had been going on for more than a week now. She couldn't think of anything she might have done that would have upset him but he had made it clear as of late that he only wanted mom, not mommy.

She tried not to let it get to her, but she felt like she was failing at the whole mom thing. This was supposed to be her big do over – being able to do all the things that she never got to do with Henry.

Throughout the bath, Bodie sulked but he at least stopped crying. After it was over, Emma got him dressed and into bed. She picked up one of his favorite books and came over to the bed.

"Do you want me to read you a story before you sleep?"

"Want mom," he pouted.

"Mom isn't home from work yet, so why don't you let me read to you."

She didn't really wait for an answer, only sat down and began to read the book. Once he was asleep, she bent over gave him a kiss before leaving the room – making sure his night light which he had to have on was functioning.

It was after 10:30 when an exhausted looking Regina finally got home. Emma had been on the couch barely paying attention to the tv she had on.

"Long meeting?" she asked.

"Yes," Regina said. "I swear people think money grows on trees in this town. Everyone wants an increase in their departmental budgets. You tell one no and then another yes and it turns into a debate about which office is using the most office supplies and being wasteful."

She came over and sat on the couch next to her wife.

"I'm sorry you have to put up with all that," Emma said, even though she knew she was one of those departments that had requested extra funds this year.

"I'm just happy to be home."

"If you are hungry, I can warm you up some food," Emma offered.

"No, not right now," Regina said leaning up against her. "Right now, all I want is a few moments of peace where I don't have to make any decisions."

That lasted about a minute when Emma spoke up again. "I think we need to talk about Bodie."

Regina sat up, "What do you mean?"

"You know how I told you he has been saying no to me lately, he did again tonight when it was bath time. He was throwing a fit and he kept asking for you. I know you said it is just a phase and I shouldn't worry, but I can't help but worry. He isn't being like this with you, so what am I doing wrong?"

"You aren't doing anything wrong," Regina said, even though the expression on her wife's face showed that she wasn't going to take that as an answer. "Look, if it makes you feel better I will speak to him tomorrow and see if I can find out what is causing this, ok?"

"Ok," Emma said.

"Now about that food?"

…

Emma was pacing at the bottom of the steps, waiting for Regina to come down with Bodie. Henry had already left for school and both women needed to get into work, but Regina was upstairs making sure Bodie was ready for daycare – and also hopefully finding out what was wrong.

It was still a few minutes before they came down the stairs.

Bodie didn't look any happier to see her.

"I will take Bodie to daycare today," Regina said, making direct eye contact with her. It was supposed to be Emma's turn to do that. "Why don't you bring lunch over to my office today, it will be nice to sit and chat."

Emma realized that was Regina's way of saying whatever she had to say wasn't going to be said now.

"Ok." Emma said and then she bent down to say goodbye to Bodie. "What to give mommy a hug before she goes to work?"

Bodie looked up at Regina first before giving her a lackluster hug. "Love you buddy," she said. When he didn't say I love you back Emma knew whatever was going on wasn't over. Giving Regina a quick kiss on the cheek, she left hoping that at lunch she would know what was wrong and how to fix it.

…

Emma came into Regina's office and sat down a bag of lunch from Granny's on her wife's desk and took a seat.

"Please tell me you know why Bodie is treating me like this?"

"I do," Regina said, getting the food out of the bag. "You didn't get anything for yourself?"

"I'm not hungry."

Regina gave her a look with a raised eyebrow.

"What? My stomach is in knots over this. My son hates me."

"First of all, Bodie doesn't hate you. He is confused is all."

"Confused by what?"

"He is confused as to why his mommy would steal Tod."

"Tod? You mean that stuffed turtle that my mom got him?"

"The one and only. Apparently, he thinks you stole Tod so he is upset with you. He wants the turtle back, so the question is where is it?"

"I don't have a clue. Why does he even think I stole it?"

"He said you took it from him when you were getting him out of the car one day or at least I think that is what he said. As you know, interviewing children isn't always easy."

Emma sat back in the chair thinking about that. Then suddenly she got out of the chair and left the room. It took a moment for Regina to follow her out – they ended up in the parking lot where Emma began looking through the Bug for the stuffed turtle.

"It's not here," Emma said even as she continued to look. Regina opened the passenger side door and began to help her look.

After it was clear that the turtle was not in the car, Emma slammed the door shut and leaned against it. Regina came around and gave her a hug. "We will figure it out. We can find out where your mom got it and simply get another. He is a child, he won't realize that it is replacement Tod."

"Yes, but I will know," Emma said. "I will know that I lost my kid's toy and he hates me for it."

"He doesn't hate you," Regina said. "You are being way too hard on yourself. I could just as easily lost Tod or any other of his toys."

"But you didn't," Emma said, pulling away from her. "I did."

"Emma …"

"I should get back to work," Emma said.

….

Emma couldn't concentrate on any of her work as she kept thinking about Bodie and Tod. Her son was upset with her because she had apparently taken Tod from him and not given it back. She kept trying to play back the last couple of weeks in her mind about when she had Bodie with her in the car. Maybe if she could remember that then maybe she could remember what she had done with the stuffed animal.

The problem was Bodie was regularly in her car so trying to pinpoint a time wasn't exactly easy.

And then it hit her.

Getting up from her desk she walked out to the parking lot, but instead of going over to the Bug, she went to one of the cruisers. Two weeks ago she had taken the Bug in for a tune up, but since the place was busy, she was going to be without the car for at least a full day so she had used one of the cruisers from work.

Opening the door to the cruiser, she began looking for the turtle, going as far as even checking the trunk, but no Tod.

"Damn it," she said out loud, sure she had figured it out. In fact, she was sure she had seen Tod that day because it had been raining hard and Bodie had said from his car seat that Tod liked the water. She could recall it clearly – Bodie had Tod with him in the car seat in the back of the cruiser.

Think, she told herself. If she had seen Tod then, had she seen him again?

She had picked him up from daycare that day and they drove straight home. She had parked the car in the driveway, not in the garage in case she got called out. The rain was still coming down hard, which made her rethink using the garage, but decided against it, figuring a bit of rain wasn't going to hurt Bodie – as he had his little raincoat on anyway and the matching hat was right there beside the car seat.

Once she shut the car off, she turned around and looked at her son, telling him "We're going to get a little wet."

He just smiled and laughed at her. Moving quick, she got out, opened his door and unbuckled him, placing his hat on his head and once she got him out and the door shut, she moved quickly to the front door and got them both inside, where Bodie was laughing at her now soaked hair since she wasn't wearing a hat.

But where was Tod? Surely, if Bodie had dropped him, she or Regina would have noticed him in the driveway or coming up to the door. And he wasn't in the cruiser now.

No, she thought, she was missing something. Bodie said she had taken Tod.

"Idiot," she said out loud and walked back into the station, going directly to her office and the coat rack where her Storybrooke Sheriff's Office coat was hanging. Checking the pockets, she pulled out Tod.

Now she remembered. When she was unbuckling Bodie she had taken Tod from his hands and put him in her coat pocket. Bodie had obviously seen her do it and that is why he thought she had stolen Tod.

She took a seat, placing Tod on the desk in front of her, pulling out her phone to call Regina to let her know the crisis had been averted. But as she saw that turtle staring at her, she paused. Giving Tod back to Bodie would obviously make him happy, but he would still think she took him.

How could she convince him that she hadn't?

It took her a while to think it through but she ended up texting Regina telling her she had Tod, but she wasn't to tell Bodie and play along with what she was going to do. Her next text was to Henry because he would need to play along too. She just hoped she could make Bodie believe her.

…

Emma burst into the dining room where she knew her family was already having dinner.

"Emma!" Regina said. "What's wrong?"

"There was a bank robbery and the suspects were hold up inside. We stayed outside, tried to talk to them, but they opened fire," Emma said mimicking gun fire.

"My God was anyone hurt?" Regina said, doing her best to exaggerate as instructed by Emma.

"No, but only because of Officer Tod," Emma said, pulling Tod out of her coat pocket.

"Tod!" Bodie yelled.

"Officer Tod," Emma said. "Tod wanted to be a cop so he has been training and today, today when the bank robbers were shooting at us, one of them got the drop on me and Officer Tod, he saved me. I might not be here how if Tod wasn't there. Officer Tod is a hero."

Emma handed Tod to Bodie who hugged him. "Tod's a hero?"

"Yes!" Emma said, rubbing Bodie on the top of the head. "He saved my life."

"Mom, Tod's a hero," Bodie said holding out Tod for Regina to see.

"It would appear he is," Regina said. "We are all thankful for him saving your mommy."

"Tod's a hero," Bodie smiled, showing him to Henry this time.

"He sure is," Henry said. "And you know usually when there is a hero in town, the mayor will make a proclamation." He would tell Bodie had no idea what that meant. "A proclamation is like this official piece of paper that tells everyone that Tod is a hero. And since we know who the mayor is, I bet she would be happy to make a proclamation, wouldn't you mom?"

"Will you?" Bodie asked.

"Of course, I will," Regina said.

Bodie hugged Tod tighter to him.

That night when Emma slipped into bed, she hugged Regina tight to her.

"You were in with Bodie for an awful long time tonight," Regina said. Bodie had wanted Emma to read to him before bedtime.

"He wanted hear the story again," Emma said.

"How many criminals did you make it this time?"

"Oh, about a dozen."

"I'm just glad you and Bodie are back on track, but do I really have to do an official proclamation."

"Yes!" Emma said. "The story doesn't work if the mayor doesn't do the proclamation. And it has to be done right, in your office and all official like. Maybe I should call the newspaper."

"Don't even think about it."


	2. Chapter 2

Emma sat in the middle of many parts scattered on the floor – parts she wasn't even sure all went together. She looked again at the directions.

"This is ridiculous," Regina said, as she surveyed what was earlier a very clean living room floor.

Emma looked up at her wife, giving her a small smile. "I will get this figured out."

"Do you think you will get it figured out before our son decides it's time to get up for Christmas morning to see what Santa brought him?" Regina asked.

"Well smarty pants, how did you do this when Henry was growing up?" Emma asked.

"I paid someone to put the toys together in advance," Regina said.

"Of course you did," Emma chuckled. "But I refuse to cheat. This is part of the whole Christmas experience. It's no different than decorating the tree or leaving out milk and cookies for Santa."

"That reminds me, be sure to drink some of that milk and have a cookie before you come to bed."

"Wait, you aren't staying to help?"

"You do realize this is the first Christmas that Bodie really understands all of this. It's not like when he was a baby and we did things at our pace," Regina said. "I remember Henry's first real Christmas as far as embracing Santa – he woke me up at like 4:30 in the morning wanting to see what Santa got him. I would like to get some sleep before the early wake up call."

"Did you tell him to go back to bed?"

"No," Regina replied. "I did however make him wait a few minutes before coming downstairs so I could turn on the tree and get the camera ready to take some photos. I'm not sure I was ever as exhausted as I was at the end of that day, but Henry, he was like full speed most of the day. All day it seemed like it was, 'mom, look at this,' or 'mom, see what this can do.'"

Although it sounded like she was somewhat complaining about the experience, Emma could see the wistful look in Regina's eyes as she remembered that Christmas.

"It's a little late to hire someone to deal with all of this," Emma said.

"Or we could use magic, which is what I suggested to you two hours ago."

"But that is cheating too," Emma pouted. "Come on, don't you want to embrace doing something traditionally. Be just like other families."

"There is no such thing as traditional in our lives," Regina said. And then she thought a little more about what Emma was saying. Ever since Bodie was born Emma had wanted to do all the things she missed when Henry was growing up. Even though it was really the last thing she wanted to do, Regina came over to where Emma was sitting, moved some of the toy parts out of the way and sat down. "Give me the instructions."

Emma gave her a huge smile, before leaning over and giving her a kiss on the cheek. She then handed the instructions over to Regina who studied them a moment.

"No magic?" Regina asked.

"No magic," Emma said. "Unless you count the magic of Christmas."

Regina rolled her eyes at her but gave her a quick kiss.


End file.
